Dave Johnson
Forum Replies Created
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What Steve already mentioned is the best approach, but you could add to that with more stylization during the zoom in … only if appropriate for the content and subject matter.
For example, if it’s a more whimsical type piece, the ever-popular cartoon look might work. However, if the subjects are business people, it might be more appropriate to do something like going B&W during the zoom and adding a digital type-on with some basic bio info. Hard to say not knowing the content/context.
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By the way, if you need to use the second method I mentioned, don;t forget to feather the garbage matte so it blends nicely.
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The best bet is always to send it to one of the Sony Service Center’s on the page below since most independently operated “Authorized Service Centers” really on deal with consumer equipment, but more often than not won’t tell you that … in many cases they just take your money and ship the gear to a Sony Service Center just as you could do yourself without their markup.
However, if you are in a major TV market, there is likely a repair center close by that services all the local TV stations and is plenty qualified to service most pro gear. For example, here in Tampa/St.. Pete, Florida there is one that is owned by the same parent company that owns several of the local TV and radio stations (Media General).
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Search the AE forum for “banding” and you’ll find tons of threads with tips … most of which center around upping the color resolution, adding grain and/or adjusting individual color channels.
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Awesome!! And gives “Fantastic Plastic” a whole new meaning. lol
I love these kind of MacGyver-esque techniques so I appreciate your sharing photos … gives me some ideas since my mounting methods have usually been less elegant … time is often a driving factor so it’s often just – stand, clamp, clamp, done … ugly as all get out, but effective.
I too have been pleasantly surprised by the material’s heat tolerance … I’ve used it with Tungsten and have never had a problem, although I must admit that may be because I haven’t been brave enough to leave them on any longer than absolutely necessary.
Another trick I’ve found useful in some instances and that’s another testament to the material’s heat tolerance … wrinkles obviously don’t matter when using the material for instrument-side diffusion, but if you ever need to use it in a shot (i.e., for direct sun through large glass in the background), you can just throw it in a clothes dryer for 10 mins and it comes out perfectly wrinkle-free.
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Excellent advice, Derek, and thanks for sharing.
One thing I’ll add about locking cases … several companies that make cases for pro gear have finally caught up with the times and started making their cases available with TSA locks and/or selling TSA locks separately … locks the TSA has a master key for so they can open them, search the bags and re-lock them without cutting off the locks or using cable ties anyone cat cut off with nail clippers. Just run a search on B&H’s site for “TSA”.
And, I totally agree that Pelican cases are by far the best … just seems everyone’s main concern is weight and they’re definitely heavier than the soft cases that I try not to trust critical gear in since it’s still cheaper to ship heavy cases than it is to replace expensive gear.
I also totally agree that UPS is always the worst choice … my FT employer gets discounted rates with UPS only so I’m forced to use UPS with their gear even though I know better. USPS is also worth checking … in what is clearly part of their fight to stay alive in recent years, they have really stepped up their game significantly … in most instances, USPS is far cheaper than FedEx and, in many cases, faster for cheaper (yes, I said faster).
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You might also want to pre-render that precomposed scene with another keylight on it.
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As Jim alluded to, it looks like the noise may originate with some part of the work already done, rather than the original footage. In fact, especially since the extreme areas that you circled seem to be only directly below the text composite, it looks like there may be some extra junk in the alpha channel of the text layer that is worsening the blown-out highlights and aliasing artifacts Jim mentioned. Does it change at all when you turn off the text layer?
I would first resolve that, which may solve the problem completely.
Then, since there is not much color in the staircase, perhaps draw a loose garbage matte around the area with color noise and desaturate it … not to the point that its completely B&W, but just enough that the color noise is mush less prominent.
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If I understand correctly what you are saying – that the same project that took 2 hours to render is now taking 17 hours on the same machine – it sounds very much like something significant changed about either the computer itself or the AE settings.
As Ted alluded to, the quickest and easiest to address is checking that you haven’t changed any AE settings that you may not be entirely familiar with (you do not need and should not use OpenGL or Multiprocessing to render on a machine with such limited resources).
If AE settings are not the issue, then think about everything that is different about the computer now as compared to when the render only took 2 hours. For example, have you since installed various other programs that are using up all the computer’s resources while you’re trying to render (can be either programs open in the foreground or background processes)?
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I do this a LOT since I often have to make several versions of the exact same videos with the logos or other text changed for several different sub-companies. Any of the methods Kevin described are indeed the way to go … I’ll just add that you will want to make sure you rename every pre-comp, comp and/or project file that you duplicate and/or change so that you don’t end up with a tangled mess and inevitably change and/or save over things you didn’t intend to.